Did Miguel Cabrera Deserve AL MVP Award? — Sports Survey of the Day

For the second straight year, the American League Most Valuable Player award has become grounds for debate between baseball traditionalists who believe Miguel Cabrera deserved to win the award and fans of advanced metrics who feel as though Mike Trout got robbed. Did Cabrera deserve a second straight MVP?

Cabrera had some unbelievable numbers this season, batting .348 with 44 home runs and 137 runs batted in. To some, that's enough to win an MVP award. To others, his woes defensively limited his true value to his team. Some in the sabermetric community even argue that his RBI number shouldn't factor into the equation, as runs batted in are a product of chance, given that they rely on the players before you to reach base.

Trout, meanwhile, hit .323 with 27 home runs and 97 runs batted in. While those numbers don't jump out quite as much as Cabrera's, many are arguing that his defensive prowess and make him more valuable than Cabrera.

Trout's WAR (wins above replacement) is nearly three full points higher than Cabrera. WAR, an advanced statistic meant to encapsulate every aspect of a player's game into a metric for how valuable they are, has been a rallying cry for the pro-Trout camp over the last two seasons.